GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

Mary was going to have a baby! It was simply impossible!

As if it weren’t scary enough when the angel Gabriel appeared right there in front of her, he proceeded to pronounce an incomprehensible, utterly implausible announcement, “You’re going to have a child . . .” I can envision Mary thinking something like this: “Whoa, now! Wait just a minute here. I know enough about the birds and bees to be one-hundred percent certain that I’m not going to have a child any time within the next nine months.” How do you suppose this young lady might have felt faced with the unimaginable, the unthinkable . . . the impossible?

“It just can’t be.”

How many times do we have the same kind of feeling when faced with the previously unimaginable?

It just can’t be . . .
. . . God would never let that happen.

It just can’t be . . .
. . . I’m not ready yet.

It just can’t be . . .
. . . I’d never be able to stand it.

And yet, though you try to convince yourself that it just can’t be, there the just-can’t-be thing is, in all its immense be-ing-ness, staring you in the face in bold defiance of your feeble self-assertion. It just can’t be . . . but it is!

And then what?

When the what of God’s plan exceeds our comprehension, we usually look for explanations. So did Mary. And when Mary asked “How shall this be?” Gabriel’s explanation was simply this: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will come to rest on you . . .”

What other indisputable impossibilities of life are out there, waiting to be blown away by God’s promise? “The Holy Spirit will come on you . . .”

I’ll never amount to anything!
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . .”

There’s nothing that can be done about it!
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . .”

This marriage is doomed.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . .”

Like it or lump it, that’s just the way I am.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . .”

The “then what” is this: God wants to do the impossible in your life.

Here’s the how: the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

And the why? Mary already knew that one. Do you? It’s simple. God wants to do the impossible in your life because He chose you for His glory. You didn’t earn it, you don’t deserve it and you never will. God just chose you.

And so Mary’s response is the key for us. She may have had doubts, may have still thought it all quite incomprehensible. And yet she expressed her faith in God’s plan with words we all should pray a dozen times a day: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to Your Word.”